The Tussock Moth -His Life Story* 



Mary L. Dougherty 



The tussock larva had just come from the egg. He was a queer 

 little fellow, thin and rough -looking. He raised his head and like 

 any boy wondered, "What next""" He caught sight of something 

 waving near him. He stretched out his antennae. Something 

 smelled good. He started toward it. It felt cool and soft. He 

 tried his little teeth on it . How good it tasted. He had found his 

 first elm leaf. After that he ate and ate. He hardly took time to 

 sleep, but once in a while he stopped to enjoy the warmth of the 

 sunshine. One day he felt especially good, and ate more than 

 usual and stretched himself harder than ever before in the sunshine, 

 Suddenly his coat split up the back, as any boy's would when he 

 grew too fast and got too active. But unilke the boy, this small 

 larva quietly crept out and ate up his old coat. 



Wonder of wonders, he was not left coatless, for he had taken 

 with him out of his old skin a new one — like the old, yet unlike it. 

 The ground color was yellow; just back of the head were two bril- 

 liant spots of red ; down the middle of his back stood a row of four 

 tufts of hairs — tiny, but very much like a blacking dauber. At the 

 very end of his body was another tuft of hair, only here it was 

 longer and did not stand straight up but slanted back as a hunter 

 might carry his gun over his shoulder. At the front, just in front 

 of the little red spots, were two tufts of hair, slanting toward each 

 side and the front and not so heavy as the others. Perhaps these 

 helped him to smell out his food. 



Now he was a happy, care-free little larva, for all he had to do 

 was to eat and grow and split his coat and come out in a new one, 

 over and over again. Being so care-free, he one day started on a 

 journey of discovery. Why, I don't know. Perhaps he longed 

 for finer food. At any rate, as he went down the trunk of the elm 

 tree, a great giant, (an amateur naturalist) discovered and cap- 

 tured him. He was carried away and shut in a glass case with 

 plenty of light, air and elm leaves and he didn't seem to mind at all. 

 After a time, he grew tired of eating. He perhaps looked again 

 for new occupation. He found he could spin. What fun! He 

 would make himself a nest. He spun and spun and spun, fine 

 silky threads all about himself and fastened them to the leaf on 



*This story is written by a student teacher, and is the result of the work in 

 a class in Elementary Science, preparing for instruction in the lower grades. 



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